Pete Wedderburn

Pete Wedderburn qualified as a vet twenty-five years ago, and now spends half his working life writing newspaper columns. He lives in Ireland with his wife, two daughters and a menagerie of dogs, cats, poultry and other furry and feathered companions. Pete answers readers' queries about their pets' health in his video Q&A – he is also on Twitter as @petethevet and has a Facebook Fan Page.

Do animals have morals?

"Are we in anthropodenial" is the title of an article written in 1997 by Professor Frans de Waal, a primate specialist from the University of Georgia. Prof de Waal is in the news again this week after giving a paper at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago, which is running a symposium titled "Animal Smarts" reviewing the latest findings on the mental abilities of animals.

Can monkeys tell the difference between right and wrong?

In the past twenty years, there's been a turnaround in the way that science views animal consciousness. Back in the 1980's, the mainstream view was that animals reacted purely by reflex, and by learned responses to punishment and reward. People who suggested otherwise were accused of being anthropomorphic, incorrectly ascribing human emotions and thoughts to creatures that had nothing much going on inside their skulls.

Now it seems that this low opinion of animal brain power was brought about not so much by the lack of ability of animals as by our own lack of skill at understanding them. Ongoing research is piling up evidence that supports a view that animals are sentient beings that share much more with human consciousness than many feel comfortable about.

This is interesting stuff for animal-lovers and those that work with animals, but discussions have moved out to a wider circle, into the debate about evolution. The ability to tell right from wrong has been held up as a unique, God-given attribute, proof that we are different from animals. De Waal claims that his findings on animal morality support evolutionary theory, because they demonstrate that a basic form of human-type conscience was present in the creatures who are our ancestors. Creationists maintain that just because chimps happened to be blessed with basic morals makes no difference to their argument.

Maybe we should call in the leader of Prof De Waal's chimpanzee troupe to give us the final answer on this one?